What’s it like to spend $200k on lunch? Guy Spier wins bid for date with Warren Buffett October 29, 2014 What’s it like to go for lunch with Warren Buffett? Aquamarine Capital fund manager Guy Spier knows, and it cost him only $216,000. Spier and friend Mohnish Pabrai were successful in Buffett’s annual lunch bid in 2007, with all proceeds going to charity. Was it worth it? “Absolutely. It’s hard to calculate the ROI but [...]
Over to you, chancellor: David Cameron tells George Osborne to probe £1.7bn EU fiasco October 27, 2014 David Cameron has handed chancellor George Osborne and his Treasury colleagues the unenviable task of picking through statistics which led to the UK being landed with a £1.7bn bill from Brussels last week. The Prime Minister openly refused to pay the £1.7bn bill yesterday, which is backdated to 2002 and has been calculated by EU [...]
Mike Ashley to make £2m loan to Rangers FC October 27, 2014 RANGERS chief executive Graham Wallace has resigned after less than a year in the role, as the Scottish football club accepted a £2m loan from Newcastle owner Mike Ashley. In a statement issued yesterday, Rangers’ board thanked Wallace for “his contribution to the club during a difficult period”. Wallace was appointed chief executive in November [...]
Why Thomas Piketty should back high banker pay – CNBC Comment October 27, 2014 With reporting season kicking off today, cue the usual brouhaha over how much those greedy bankers are getting. But maybe it’s worth pausing a moment to take a lesson or two from the world of high finance. True, official statistics show that financiers have enjoyed a 27 per cent wage rise since the start of [...]
Jean-Claude Juncker’s €300bn plan forges path for fiscal union October 27, 2014 A €300m (£236m) investment programme proposed by incoming EU president Jean-Claude Juncker will form the basis of the bloc's fiscal union, a senior EU politician has said. In an interview with EUobserver, Laszlo Andor, the EU's commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, said Juncker's effort to create an investment programme "is an attempt to [...]
Ukip mapped: Nigel Farage is most popular in areas where immigration is lowest October 27, 2014 On Monday, defence secretary Michael Fallon aired what he believed to be some of the public's concerns around immigration. Speaking on Sky News' Murnghan programme, Fallon said some towns on the east coast of England feel they are "under siege" and "swamped" by migrants. That phrasing failed to impress Downing Street, which was quick to [...]
Tesco’s falling share price eats away at Dave Lewis and Alan Stewart’s bonuses October 27, 2014 Here's another reason for Dave Lewis to be concerned about Tesco's tumbling share price – it's already cost him around a quarter of the bonus accrued at his previous employer Unilever. Tesco bought out awards that both Lewis and new chief financial officer Alan Stewart forfeited from leaving their previous employment, which in the [...]
Elon Musk: “We need to be careful with artificial intelligence” October 27, 2014 Elon Musk may have made millions from technology, but that doesn't mean he doesn't worry about it bringing about a Terminator-style end to humanity. During a talk to students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the SpaceX-Tesla-PayPal tycoon warned that "we should be very careful" about how we use artificial intelligence, adding it could be humanity's [...]
Rangers boss Graham Wallace resigns as club agrees £2m loan with investor Mike Ashley October 27, 2014 Rangers chief executive Graham Wallace has resigned after less than a year in the role, as the Scottish football club accepted a £2m loan from Newcastle owner Mike Ashley. In a statement issued this morning, Rangers' board thanked Wallace for “his contribution to the club during a difficult period”. Wallace was appointed chief executive [...]
Obama under pressure to put a stop to forced Ebola quarantine October 27, 2014 President Obama is under pressure to end the practice of forced quarantines, imposed by some US states on healthcare workers returning from countries affected by Ebola. The row was sparked after volunteer nurse Kaci Hickox became the first person to be held in New Jersey under the measures, despite not showing any symptoms of the [...]